ASTANA – On the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, Kazakh journalist and author of documentary projects Maya Bekbayeva presented her new book “Kazakhstan. Contribution to Victory” on April 23, revealing previously unknown stories and lesser-known facts about Kazakhstan’s role in the war, reported Kazinform.
Maya Bekbayeva. Photo credit: Agibai Ayapbergenov/Kazinform
The book is the result of years of research and work on documentary films about war heroes such as Bauyrzhan Momyshuly, Khiuaz Dospanova, Aliya Moldagulova, Talgat Bigeldinov, and other figures. It highlights not only front-line soldiers, but also those who contributed to the Victory from the rear.
The book sheds light on stories that have long remained unknown to the general public. One of them is the story of Grigory Bulatov, a comrade of Rakhimzhan Koshkarbayev, whose participation in raising the Soviet flag over the Reichstag was ignored by the official version for a long time, crediting the act to Mikhail Yegorov and Meliton Kantaria.
“When Bulatov returned home and told his story, people didn’t believe him and even mocked him with the nickname ‘Grishka Reichstag.’ He could not bear it and took his own life,” Bekbayeva said.
Diving into the biographies of famous heroes also gives new insights into their personal destinies. Bekbayeva emphasized that the stories Soviet-era books ignored are now essential to tell.
“Manshuk Mametova was the daughter of a man who was also repressed and was called an ‘enemy of the people.’ He was the most prominent representative of the western wing of Alash Orda. Not a single film or book of the Soviet period said anything about this. The same goes for Rakhimzhan Koshkarbayev: not only do we still prove to this day that it was him who raised the flag over the Reichstag, it has never been mentioned anywhere that his father was also called an ‘enemy of the people’ and was imprisoned,” she noted.
